Tom Strong
Tom Strong is a famous and celebrated science-hero who operates out of Millennium City. History Near the turn of the century, Dr. Sinclair Strong and his wife Susan set sail for the lost island of Attabar Teru, where they hoped to be able to pursue their scientific ambitions in glorious isolation. Caught in a storm near their destination, their arrival was a tumultuous one. The couple survived, but their sole companion, a guide and shipman by the name of Tomas, did not. The two set to starting their new lives, erecting their new home atop a dormant volcano. It wasn't long before Susan became pregnant. As it turned out, the island was not uninhabited as the Strongs had thought: A black tribe, the Ozu, dwelt there. They hid their presence at first, but when the Susan encountered severe complications during childbirth, they made their presence known and helped deliver the child. On January 1, 1900, Tomas Strong came into the world, named after his parents' lost companion. Tom, as the boy came to be called, was raised to the letter of a radical child development plan of Dr. Strong's own invention, designed to develop both the child's body and mind to their utmost pontential. To that end, little Tom was raised in a special high-gravity chamber, a process Sinclair had previously tested on chickens, who had "thrived" (per his words) on it. While Tom's still-developing body adapted to the unnatural environment, imbuing him with strength far beyond what a regular human would be capable of, his parents had to don special bulky, protective suits whenever they wished to enter it to see their son. A plant native to Attabar Teru, goloka, possessing miraculous life-prolonging properties, was made a key part of his controlled diet. During Tom's adolescence, there was a violent earthquake, so powerful was it that it collapsed the Strongs' volcano-mounted home. Sinclair perished and Susan was mortally injured. In her dying moments, she was finally able to hold her son -- who had left his chamber in the wake of the disaster -- in her arms, in genuine human contact. From that point onward, Tom lived among the Ozu, and it was in their presence, amidst their culture, that he grew to manhood. Studying his parents' books and notes, he had become a brilliant scientist in his own right by this point. Wishing to see the world of his parents' origin, he built a boat and journeyed to America. Settling in Millennium City, he became a science-hero, using both his unnatural strength and scientific genius to fight crime. Powers and gadgets Growing up in heavy gravity had a significant effect on Tom's physical development: His strength exceeds human capacity, his abnormally broad shoulders and arms speak for themselves, and he's, what, seven feet tall? Even his voice booms and resonates in a way a normal person's shouldn't. He also ages exceedingly slowly, though that's a result of his regular goloka consumption. He came to Millennium City in the 1920s, and in the ensuing decades has barely changed. He has visibly aged slightly, his sideburns turning gray at their edges, but that's the extent of any signs. Certainly, there's no evidence that he's physically lost even half a step. On top of all that, mentally, he's brilliant. His parents' education program produced a genius in multiple scientific disciplines, with an ability to process and remember information surpass any level a normal human can hope to attain. He actually knows the membership numbers of every one of the thousands of Strongmen of America. He invented his heli-pack, a backpack that releases and retracts a propellor similar to that on a helicopter. It gives its wearer the ability to fly, and Tom frequently uses it to travel about Millennium's myriad stories. Among the other various utilities he tends to carry, he has a survival knife, an oxygen mask, safety goggles, a miniature audio recorder, and a grappling gun that, despite being decades old, still works just fine. Category:Tom Strong